Too Good To Be True
by Mr Sinister
Summary: Rogue and her new girlfriend enjoy some beer, some pool, and some pillow talk. (Chapter 3 now up!)
1. Too Good To Be True

**_Too Good To Be True_**

**_Part One_**

   Rogue sank the eight-ball in the corner pocket with a single stroke, her gloved hands spinning the long wooden cue up by her side almost before the ball had finished its journey. "I think that means you owe me fifty bucks, sugar," she said cheerfully, to the brown-haired, green-eyed woman who stood on the other side of the pool table with her arms folded across her breasts, and her lips pursed in mock-annoyance.

   "How much have you practiced doing that?" Jenny Franklin asked rhetorically, knowing that she didn't really want to know the answer – it would probably just make her feel inadequate, after all. "That's five straight games you've won. What's your secret, Lou?"

   Rogue flushed involuntarily, and then swallowed her heart as it leapt into her throat. She still wasn't quite accustomed to having her real name used in public, which sometimes meant that she would react quite badly to it, as she had just now. She took a deep breath, and fanned herself with her hand. "Sorry, Jen," she said, her thick Mississippi accent adding an attractive twang to her words. "Just been called 'Rogue' for so long I almost forgot what it's like to be called my given name." She paused, clearing her throat, before she put the cue down and continued "Anyway: I'll teach you what Remy taught me, if you want." She moved around the table, picking up Jenny's cue and handing it to her. "C'mon, sweetie –won't do you no harm to find out what makes a pool master, will it?" She put another couple of silver dollars into the pool table's money slot, and the balls tumbled out, ready and waiting. Then, moving in close to the other woman, she gripped the cue over her girlfriend's hands, gently guiding them towards the best position needed to hit a great shot.

   "Now what do I do?" Jenny asked, her voice thick with concentration, as she splayed her fingers and took aim. Rogue stood away from her slowly, and then laid her hands on the table's polished side.

   "Just hit the ball, and let gravity do the rest," she said softly.

   Jenny shrugged. "If you say so…" She drew back her cue and struck the white ball square in the centre of its mass. It rolled quickly across the green baize and hit a solid red ball with a satisfyingly thick sound, causing the red ball to roll across the table and sink itself in a side pocket. As it did so, Jenny squealed with delight, before lining up another multicoloured ball and jabbing it ruthlessly into a top corner pocket. "Third time's a charm," she muttered quietly, before potting one last ball, and then blowing some excess chalk off the end of her cue, as if she were blowing smoke off the barrel of a gun. "Yup, looks like I got the hang of that, pilgrim," she said in a deep, gravely, Eastwood-style tone. "Thanks, Lou – now maybe I can beat you, finally."

   "Like hell you can," Rogue laughed, winking. "I got your number, darlin' – you're never gonna win when you play me."

   Jenny raised an eyebrow, and then slapped another twenty-dollar bill down onto the pool table's surface. "Oh, really? Well, I think this says you can't, don't you?"

   Rogue rolled her eyes. "Girl, when are you ever gonna learn? You keep makin' those kinda bets, you're just gonna keep losin' money..." She shrugged. "But if you want me to teach you that kinda lesson myself, I'll be more'n happy to." She pointed at the balls scattered over the table, and clicked her fingers. "Rack 'em up, Rawhide."

   Jenny laughed, and began gathering up the balls. "You got it, pardner..."

   Hours later, Rogue stretched herself out on the hotel bed that she had been sharing with Jenny for the past two days, and then turned on her side so that she could talk to her companion, as Jenny splashed her face with cold water from the room's small en-suite bathroom. "I hope you learned your lesson today, honey," she said lightly, her lips pursed slightly in order to stop a guilty laugh escaping them.

   "Yes, I think I did," Jenny replied, drying her cheeks off with a pristine white hand towel and then walking towards the bed with slow, cat-like strides. "Never make a bet with a Mississippi girl."

   "Damn straight," Rogue laughed. "How much did you lose? A hundred bucks? Two hundred?"

   "I lost count after the first hundred. I guess I need more practice, huh?" Jenny said, sliding down next to Rogue gently, her bare fingers touching Rogue's unclothed shoulder. Rogue flinched reflexively until she felt the familiar bioelectric buzz pass between her lover's skin and her own. The low-level electrical static that Jenny's body generated continuously formed a disruption that prevented her powers from taking effect, allowing her prolonged human contact, without depriving her of her powers, for the first time in her adult life.

   Rogue planned to take full advantage of that.

   "Guess you do, at that," she said, leaning close to the other woman and brushing her lips across the soft, inviting pink of Jenny's mouth, capturing the two delicate rosebuds in a still-hesitant kiss. As she did so, she felt the tingle again, small sparks literally crackling between them as they touched, and she felt her stomach lurch once more. At the same time, she felt her breath catch in her throat for a moment or two, as she automatically expected to feel the familiar rush of memories and powers flooding into her body, without any way of stopping it.

   But she didn't. Oh, sweet Lord Jesus, she didn't. The sensation of another person being drawn inside her, in a perverse inversion of how sex ought to be, did not happen – and not for the first time, Rogue felt an ecstatic tear roll down her cheek. She broke the kiss abruptly, and wiped self-consciously at the salt trail with her fingertips. "Sorry, Jen," she said hoarsely. "Guess I'm still not completely used to that, either."

   Jenny tilted her head slightly, and then helped Rogue to dry her face, touching her lover's wet cheek with her towel, before she drew her closer and put her arms around her, her damp hair spilling around her shoulders and down between her shoulder blades. "Don't worry about it, Lou," she murmured, her voice quiet. "I understand. I really do." Gently, she pointed towards the crumpled bundle of her clothes on the floor beside the bed. "I could put something on, if you wanted me to –"

   Rogue laughed, despite herself. "No, that's all right, sugar. Might as well face up to this sometime, I guess – can't keep hiding from it all my life." Her voice took on a stronger edge, and she intertwined her fingers with Jenny's, squeezing tightly as she brought both their hands up between the two of them. "I've spent too long being protected from this. I want to know what other people feel when they touch somebody, Jen. I've always wanted to feel that – and now that I can, I feel scared about it." She laughed bitterly. "Isn't that just the stupidest thing you've ever heard?"

   Jenny reached out with her free hand and brushed Rogue's face with her fingertips, tracing the topography of the soft lines of Rogue's cheek and jaw with practiced ease and leaving small blue arcs of electricity crawling briefly across Rogue's skin. "That's natural, Lou," she whispered. "It's called 'the fear of the unknown'." She nodded towards the battered old TV in the corner of the room, and raised her eyebrows. "You only have to turn on the evening news to know that you're not the only one who gets that feeling from time to time. It's human nature, that's all." She paused, taking a deep breath. "It'll pass, I promise."

   "I hope so," Rogue murmured in a soft voice. "I don't want to be afraid of touching you, Jen."

   "I don't want that, either," Jenny replied, edging herself closer to Rogue a few centimetres at a time, until finally Rogue could feel the heat of her breath on her face – could smell the scent of sandalwood in her hair, and spring water on her skin – until there seemed to be little else in the room apart from Jenny's face. Her eyes almost filled Rogue's field of vision, a passionate explosion of jade in the still drabness of the room. "I love you, Louise Darkholme." She traced her lips delicately along the taut lines of Rogue's throat, feeling the super-strong muscles underneath the skin trembling uncontrollably with every butterfly-soft touch. "I want to show you just how much." 

*

   Steam had misted the inside of the room's windows. The sheets of the bed were strewn in a heap on the floor. Rogue, meanwhile, lay entwined in a tangled mass of arms and legs with Jenny, who was absently stroking Rogue's hair in between planting occasional kisses on the other woman's forehead. "So, did you like?" she asked playfully, running her fingers through a couple of auburn ringlets, and shifting her position so that Rogue rested more comfortably against her stomach.

   "Is that a trick question?" Rogue asked, looking up at Jenny over the curve of the other woman's breasts, her eyebrows raised curiously. "'Cause if it is, I'd hate to give you a wrong answer."

   Jenny laughed. "No trick. I'm just asking for an honest opinion – I used to have a girlfriend who would keep score of her partners in her diary, you see, and I accidentally found out I wasn't the best she'd ever had, like she'd been leading me to believe. Ever since then, I've asked every single girl I've been with to tell me the opposite, just to stick it to her." She took a deep breath exhaling quickly so as to move some troublesome tawny hair out of her eyes and squeezed Rogue a little. "So – how'd I do? Excellent, passable, or just plain bad?"

   "Oh, you were great with a capital G," Rogue replied, her cheeks flushing. "But then again, I ain't exactly got a huge amount of experience where girls are concerned, so that probably don't mean all that much."

   "Ouch." Jenny dug at Rogue's ribs in mock-annoyance, before nuzzling her at the base of her neck. "Has anybody ever told you that you have a talent for building people up – and then knocking them right back down again?"

   "Yeah, all the time," Rogue chuckled, reaching up and cupping her girlfriend's cheek in her palm for a moment or two. "Remy used to call it my 'other mutant power'. Goofy, huh?"

   Jenny laughed, and then shook her head. "No, not at all; in fact, it sounds to me like he knew exactly what he was talking about." She paused, and then looked down at Rogue for a moment or two. "Remy seems like a very perceptive kind of guy."

   "He was," Rogue whispered, suddenly very downbeat. "He _is. I've never met anybody like him."_

   Jenny nodded. "Yeah, I kind of noticed that. He even tried hitting on me once or twice." She almost guffawed with laughter. "And not just at any time – nope, he always did it while I was wearing my kd lang t-shirt, and flashing that little pink triangle button I like to wear sometimes. You know, making it really, truly, stupidly obvious he's really _not my type, in every way that really matters – and he__ still offered to buy me a drink!"_

   That lifted Rogue's spirits just a little, and she smiled. "Sounds like Remy, all right. I remember he wouldn't leave me alone back when he first wanted us to start datin'.  I said no, so he came back stronger. I _still said no, so he bought me flowers and offered to take me for boat rides. I finally say yes, and he goes nuts over me." She paused to giggle softly. "And I mean __really nuts. Like 'beyond sane' nuts. Guess he really fell hard for me, huh?" She sighed, glancing out of the large sash window that was positioned on the right side of the bed. "I think I was the same about him. I wish I hadn't had to do this." Jenny whistled quietly, before planting a playful momentary kiss on Rogue's scalp and letting a small arc of electricity form between her lips and Rogue's skin for a moment or two, so that she could taste Rogue's aura through it._

   "You miss Remy," she said, in a way that suggested she was making a statement, and not asking a question. "Don't you?"

   "Yeah, I miss him," Rogue said, slightly guiltily. "I miss him a lot. I was crazy about him for so long; I can't just make those feelings go away. I still feel him right here sometimes… it really hurts." She brushed her sternum, right between her breasts. "Sounds dumb, huh?"   

   "Sweetie, everybody who's ever been in love feels like that once in a while," Jenny chuckled, trailing her fingers up and down Rogue's arms. "That's all love is, if you really think about it – bottled insanity. If you could figure out a way to sell it, I'd bet you all the gold in Fort Knox that you'd be a billionaire inside of a month." 

   "I kind of got that impression from everyone else in the mansion," Rogue snorted, slightly more cheerfully. "Warren and Betsy are worse than a Leonardo di Caprio movie sometimes. And don't get me started on our ever-lovin' leader and his wife. God, if I have to hear them making kissy faces at each other one more time…"

   Jenny blinked. "They do that?"

   "Only when they think nobody else is around." Rogue stretched a little, leaning in more closely to Jenny's body and kissing her briefly on the collar bone, the salty tang of sweat brushing across her lips in the process. "Scott actually thinks singing Barry White songs in that terrible scratchy voice of his is romantic."

   "Well, if you sang _You're The First, The Last, My Everything to me, I'd be nothing but incredibly flattered," Jenny said, shrugging. "Wouldn't matter at all to me if you couldn't sing." She let a few seconds pass, waiting deliberately for Rogue to rise up in protest, and then continued "Settle down, silly – I __know you can sing; after all, I've heard you in the shower. I was just saying that __if you couldn't, I still wouldn't care, because I'd know what your meaning was. I guess Jean must feel the same about Scott, especially when he's trying to be romantic."_

   Rogue lifted her eyebrows briefly and then nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I guess that's right." She paused, a slow smile spreading across her face. "Would you sing for me?"

   Jenny blinked. "Only if I was very drunk," she said, kissing Rogue on the lips briefly. "I don't think even love could excuse my singing voice when I'm sober. I've killed cats with it, Lou. You'd think I was punishing you for something, I swear."

   "I'm sure I've heard worse," Rogue laughed. "You haven't heard Hank when he's drunk and singing dirty physics equations, after all."

   "There are dirty physics equations?" Jenny asked, in a faux-shocked tone. "Really?"

   "I guess there must be, or Hank wouldn't sing them." Rogue shrugged. "All it takes is a few glasses of vodka, and you can hear them for yourself."

   "A few glasses of vodka? Is that all?" Jenny cocked a neatly-sculpted eyebrow, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Somehow I thought Hank could take a lot more than that…"

   "Who said they were _shot glasses, sugar?" Rogue said triumphantly. "Anyway, you don't want to see it. You really don't. Hank's got the __worst case of tone-deafness I've ever heard." She paused. "I still want you to sing for me, though." She gave Jenny her most pathetic, sympathy-inducing look, and finally Jenny held her hands up in defeat._

   "Okay, okay," she said, helplessly. "But I'm holding you completely responsible for the consequences, all right?"

   "Suits me, sugar," Rogue said excitedly. "Better start thinking what you want to sing me – the next karaoke bar we come to, you're getting up there, okay?"

   Jenny rolled her eyes. "Now why couldn't I have fallen in love with Storm? At least that way I wouldn't have to put up with this kind of torture." She hugged Rogue a little tighter, and suckled gently on her girlfriend's soft, plump earlobe for a moment or two, in a brief gesture of affection. More sparks crackled and snapped in the air for fractions of a second. "Okay, sweetie. But don't say I didn't warn you."

   "'You didn't warn me'," Rogue teased, folding Jenny's arm around her smooth, sweat-caked belly and snuggling even closer to her than she had been before. "Oh, c'mon, you laid yourself open to that one, Jen," she continued, when she observed Jenny's unimpressed expression. "Couldn't resist it."

   "So I noticed," Jenny countered, sweeping her free hand through Rogue's long, damp hair as she did so. "You have a cute way with words, you know that? If anybody else had said that to me, I'd probably have called them a smart-ass and zapped them, but you? You just make me want to get my own back on you some other way."

   "Oh?" Rogue exclaimed, sounding intrigued. "And what way is that?"

   "You'll have to wait and see, won't you?" Jenny chuckled. "If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?"

   "I guess not," Rogue said thoughtfully, before she pointed at the rapidly-darkening skies outside the window. "Getting late outside – you wanna go for a drink or something? Maybe we could talk about what we're gonna do tomorrow."

   Jenny mulled the suggestion over for a second or two, before she grinned widely and nodded. "Sure, Lou – why not? Maybe we could try finding a karaoke bar, huh?"


	2. Too Good To Be True, Chapter Two

**__**

**_Too Good To Be True,_**

**_Part Two_**

   The darkness of the Massachusetts night sky was offset a little by the glowing pools of light that had come from the street-lamps spaced equally along the sidewalk. Rogue slipped her gloved hand into Jenny's bare palm and sighed. "Nice night, huh?" she asked wistfully. "Always used to think nights like these were a gift from God Himself." She laughed. "Bet that sounds dumb, don't it?"

   Jenny shook her head and chuckled. "Not at all – I felt the same way when I first kissed you, after all." Rogue rolled her eyes and stuck two fingers down her throat theatrically.

   "Yuck. Anyone ever tell you you're a shameless flatterer?" she said, nevertheless feeling a little spring come into her step as the impact of the words sank in.

   "All the time," Jenny replied, before she glanced up at the street-lamp nearest to them, and an idea seemed to physically flash across her pretty, elegantly-structured features. "Hey, Lou, I have to try something, just this once," she said, tugging Rogue towards the puddle of golden light that had been splashed onto the slabs of concrete paving. Then, turning towards Rogue, she pointed up at the lamp itself. "Always wanted to kiss a 'special somebody' under one of these – you know, like they did in those old Bogart movies, right at the end."

   Rogue pursed her lips. "I bet you say that to all the girls," she laughed, before drawing herself close to Jenny and slipping her arms about the other woman's waist. "Do I get to be Ingrid Bergman? 'Cause I don't think I could pull off being Bogey as well as you…"

   Jenny raised her eyebrows, and then stuck her tongue out at Rogue. "You know, I really should kick your ass for that, Lou. Saying things like that to your girlfriend is hardly the best way of getting any action." Nonetheless, she still drew Rogue close and kissed her deeply under the artificial glow cast by the light above them. Rogue wilted against her, all her inbuilt resistance abruptly dissipating as she felt Jenny's tongue gently play between her teeth. She felt Jenny's delicate, long-fingered hands enclose her in their embrace, and she leant towards the other woman without even thinking about it, her heart pounding in her chest like machine-gun fire. When Jenny finally broke the kiss, she had to put a hand to the lamp to steady herself because she was so utterly unsure of which way was up, and which was down. Jenny smiled, and cupped Rogue's chin in her palm gently. "Here's looking at you, kid," she whispered, her jade eyes gleaming with echoes of her elfin laughter. "Anyone ever tell you you're a great kisser?" she asked, echoing Rogue's earlier question with a wry smile.

   "Not often," Rogue said, her head still swimming. "Usually they're too unconscious for me to get much of an opinion."

   "Well, then," Jenny mused, "looks like I'm a privileged visitor, doesn't it?" She looked at her watch for a moment or two and then thumbed towards the end of the street. "We better get going. Happy hour just started at this dyke bar I know, that's just around the corner. Besides," and she grinned, "they do karaoke, and I want to get in the queue early."

   Rogue shook her head, putting two fingers to Jenny's lips as she did so. "Oh, Jen, you don't have to do that if you don't want to. I was only kiddin' –"

   Jenny shushed her by kissing her gloved fingertips and smiling broadly. "Nah, that's okay – I want to do it. What my lady wants, my lady gets, right?" She laughed evilly then, as she withdrew from Rogue's arms and began to lead her down the street excitedly. "Besides, if I do it, I want to see you do it, too. How about you sing a little Sheryl Crow for me?"

   Rogue laughed, and slid her arm around Jenny's waist as she caught up to her girlfriend, matching her pace with little effort. "I could do that now, if you like." She took a deep breath, and began to sing the first couple of verses of the first Sheryl Crow song that sprang to the forefront of her mind. "A change would do you good!" she sang, her voice ringing out like a bell in the quiet night air. Jenny quickly put one hand to her chest and fanned herself theatrically with the other. 

   "Oh my," she said, pretending to swoon. "I think you just got yourself a groupie, Lou. How can I serve you, my beautiful rock star?" Rogue grinned, and squeezed Jenny around the waist playfully. 

   "Oh, I think you're doing fine so far," she said wistfully. "I'll let you know if I need anything, okay?"

  Jenny laughed. "Your wish is my command," she chuckled, pausing in her stride to bow down at Rogue in mock-obeisance. "I am but your humble servant, after all."

   "Ooh…" Rogue cooed, posing as regally as she could, her gloved hands curled into fists and planted on her hips, and her chin angled up so that she could look down her nose at Jenny's posturing. "I like the sound of that."

   "You're supposed to," Jenny said, a mischievous gleam coming into her eye. "That line never fails, Lou. Make somebody feel special, and they'll never refuse you anything again." 

   "Is that right?" Rogue raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "You got proof of that, have you?" 

   "Of course," Jenny said. "When we get back to our hotel room, I'll show you it." Abruptly, she pointed up the street, towards a neon sign that glowed purple in the darkness. The curled letters read _The Cockatoo in elaborate script, a few of the curves sputtering occasionally and rendering certain parts of the logo darker than the rest. "Here's that place I was telling you about. Doesn't seem to be much of a queue yet, though; I guess we must've made good time." She gestured towards the doors with an extended thumb. "Come on – I'm buying."_

   "Well, when you put it _that way," Rogue said, "wild horses couldn't keep me away."_

*

   The first thing Rogue noticed about the bar was that it was packed – utterly packed – and she was immediately grateful that she had remembered her long-sleeved spandex top and gloves; the last thing she wanted was to start absorbing memories left, right and centre. She waited at the edge of the bustle around the bar, keeping her hands to herself and trying to keep her eye on how much progress Jenny was making towards getting her the glass of Southern Comfort she had requested, until she felt a quick nip at her backside. She ignored it studiously, clearing her throat and focusing more astutely on Jenny, as she elbowed her way towards the bar. She felt it again, a little more insistent this time, and she turned, to see a short-haired woman with brightly-dyed-green hair standing behind her. The woman's green bangs hung lankly around her face, which was decorated with a couple of garish piercings in her nose and lower lip, and her face was painted with neon-bright make-up. "Hi, gorgeous," the woman said lasciviously, edging closer to Rogue with every word. It wasn't often that Rogue felt nervous, but this was one of those times. "Buy you a drink?"

   "Sorry, ma'am," Rogue said as politely as she could, even though her heart was pounding a mile a minute. "My girlfriend wouldn't like that, I don't think. She's already buying me one right now. I'm waiting for her. She'll be back directly." She was well-aware that she was babbling, but she couldn't think of anything else to do – if it bought her time to escape this unwelcome attention, she figured it was worth it in the long run…

   The woman shrugged. "Well, she's not here _now, is she? C'mon, sweetheart; do me a favour here. Why don't you start by telling me your name?" She paused. "How about I tell you mine first? That's fair, isn't it?"_

   "I guess," Rogue said uncomfortably, feeling heat prickle at her cheeks.

   "Great," the other woman said, excitement thick in her words. "You can call me Gina, beautiful. Now, what's _your name?"_

   "Louise," Rogue muttered, barely audibly. "Look, I really have to see what my girlfriend is doing. Nice to meet you." She turned to go, but then the other woman grabbed her covered wrist fiercely, dragging Rogue in close to her body before Rogue had a chance to react.   

   "Why don't you stay for a while?" Gina said with a shark's smile. "We could get to know each other better." She drew closer to Rogue, her mouth a few breaths away. Rogue could smell the tang of strong liquor and cigarettes on the other woman, could detect the odour of arrogance that oozed off her – the sense of inevitability that Gina seemed to have about this conquest being successful – and she pushed her away as quickly as she could. 

   "Don't," she said. "I don't want to hurt you." She clenched her gloved fists, ready to make a quick getaway, but then…

   "Is there a problem here? Can I help you, ma'am?" Rogue felt her heart leap into her mouth as she heard Jenny's familiar voice from behind her. She saw Gina scowl and shake her head sullenly.

   "No," she snarled. "No problem here."

   "Good," Jenny said calmly, her eyes virtually crackling with electricity as the other woman began taking hesitant steps backwards. "Now please leave my girlfriend alone, or I will have you thrown out." Rogue could feel the anger radiating off Jenny's body almost as strongly as her bioelectricity, and it made her feel extremely relieved when the other woman melted away back into the throng of bar patrons before disappearing without trace. 

   "Thanks a bundle, Jen," she said, taking the drink that Jenny had brought back for her and taking a small sip from it. As she felt the warmth of the liquor hit the back of her throat she continued "I thought I'd never get rid of her."

   Jenny shook her head. "Some girls are like that, honey. They can be even pushier than guys sometimes." She shrugged. "Comes with the territory, I guess, but I wouldn't worry about it. She's gone now."

   "Yeah, that she is." Rogue downed the rest of her drink, her glass rattling as the ice cubes clicked against each other. "And now you're here again. Might as well take my mind off what just happened." She pointed to the podium at the other end of the bar, which had a TV and a microphone stand placed squarely in its centre. "How about a song then, sugar?"

   Jenny grinned. "I thought you'd never ask." She tapped her own glass. "Tequila. Best singing aid known to humanity, I'm telling you." Slipping her hand into Rogue's she led her over to the podium and then climbed the steps to the microphone. Tapping the screen of the TV, she selected her song quickly, and then, right before the song started, she shouted "Is there a doctor in the house?!" as loud as she could – an exclamation which attracted attention from all over the bar, as Jenny had presumably intended it to. Immediately after she finished speaking, the first chords of Bon Jovi's _Bad Medicine started up, and Rogue couldn't stop herself from grinning broadly as Jenny began to strut and preen like Jon Bon Jovi himself, belting out the lyrics of the song with an infectious enthusiasm, drawing loud whoops and cheers from the women around the podium. When she had finished, Rogue waited for her to get down off the stage, and then stood with her hands on her hips, and her lips pursed in an attractive pout._

   "You liar," she said, in mock-indignation. "You told me you couldn't sing!"

   "I really can't, sweetie," Jenny said, doing her best to look innocent by fluttering her lashes at Rogue, as if she were Bo Peep or Little Red Riding Hood made flesh. "I told you, it's all down to the booze. Without it, I totally suck."

   "Uh huh," Rogue said, sounding unconvinced. "And Momma's not blue."

   "Well, from what the other X-Men have told me, she isn't blue _all the time," Jenny laughed. "Try again."_

   Rogue jabbed at Jenny's arm playfully with a loosely-balled hand. "Don't get smart with me, Rawhide," she said, bubbles of happy laughter escaping her throat against her will. "You know exactly what I meant. You sing really well, you know – I had a lot of fun watching you up there."

   "Thank you," Jenny replied, almost bashfully. "Now how about you give it a shot?"

   Rogue grinned. "All right – I will. Wish me luck…" She bounded up to the podium, bursting with enthusiasm. As she approached the monitor, however, she was almost overwhelmed by the number of songs on offer – which was evidenced by the thickness of the book that held the selection numbers. Rogue gulped, and then simply shrugged her shoulders and picked out the one song that she thought appropriate for the occasion: _You've Got A Way, by Shania Twain. As the words began to flash up on the TV screen, Rogue felt her voice quaver for a moment or two, but then she found her groove, and began singing more and more naturally with every bar of music. As she sang, she kept her eyes focused on Jenny, who smiled encouragingly up at her and did not look away, even for a moment. Rogue smiled back at her and leaned down from the podium to sing to her personally, as if there was nobody else in the bar. She knew that was probably a little bit of a cliché, but she really didn't care – let others judge her how they would, but she was going to do whatever she wanted to do right now, and nothing was going to stop her. She reached out with her gloved hand to beckon Jenny up to the stage, so that she could sing directly to her, face-to-face. _

   Jenny winked at her as the song finished, and led the rest of the bar's patrons in a round of applause, causing Rogue to blush lightly and take a slightly self-conscious bow before she left the podium. When the two of them had vacated the stage in order for somebody else to pick up the microphone, Jenny said "You're just an incurable romantic at heart, aren't you?"

   Rogue held her hands up, as if to confess her guilt. "I guess that must be it," she said, laughing. "Too many slushy movies as a kid, I suppose."

   Jenny chuckled, and touched Rogue between her breasts with a fingertip. "Well then, I think we're going to have to burn that fever out of you, honey. How about we spend the weekend watching Bruce Willis and Keanu Reeves make things explode?"

   "Sure," Rogue replied. "Just as long as we can watch _Casablanca afterwards. Deal?"_

   "Deal," Jenny said, brushing Rogue's chin with the outside of her knuckles. "But if you ask me to pretend to be Bogey again, I'll skin you alive…"


	3. Too Good To Be True, Chapter Three

**_Too Good To Be True_**

**_Part Three_**

   Rogue scooped a large mouthful of mint-chocolate ice cream from the criminally-large tub that she had managed to trap between her knees, licking the leftover chocolate chips off her spoon and grinning as she felt the chilly mouthful move down her throat. "Man, I'm such a pig," she giggled stupidly, in between licks. "You shouldn't have let me order this, honey – I'll be hyper all night. I think ice cream does funny things to a Kree metabolism, especially one as screwed up as mine…"

   Jenny raised an eyebrow. "So I noticed. You're such a problem child, Lou – I don't know what I'm going to do with you…" she said in a light tone, before she pointed at the screen. "Now shush – Neo and Trinity are about to kick some serious butt, and I want to hear every single gunshot, okay?"

   Rogue gulped down another mouthful of ice cream. "Gotcha," she murmured through mint and chocolate-flavoured cold, and then she settled down to continue watching the DVD that Jenny had managed to rent from the local Blockbuster that afternoon, bright flashes of slowed-down movement splashing across the TV screen. She adjusted the covers of the bed a little, and then smiled naughtily, an irresistible chuckle forming in her throat. "Sadist."

   Jenny blinked in disbelief, and touched the 'pause' button on the remote that she held in her left hand. "I am _not," she said, indignantly, before she dug the index finger of her other hand into the plastic tub on Rogue's lap, and then decorated the end of Rogue's nose with a sizeable blob of light green ice cream. "Now __that's sadism." Rogue gasped as the cold of the stuff struck her, and then retaliated by smearing a line of ice cream down the side of Jenny's cheek with two fingers._

   "No, sugar," Rogue chuckled as Jenny wiped at her face with her hand, "that's payback." 

   "If you say so, Lou," Jenny said, before licking the ice cream off the end of Rogue's small snub nose with a single quick movement. "I call it 'making a mess', myself – but if you want it to call it that, then you go ahead, sweetie. I won't stop you."

   "Gee, that's nice to know. I'll bear that in mind, I guess." Rogue laughed, before she drew closer to Jenny and captured her mouth in a delicate kiss, before the other woman could sit back down again. "I had a great time last night, you know," she said in a softer tone, as she gazed into her lover's jade eyes, almost hypnotised by the flecks of gold that were scattered around Jenny's irises, as if they were pennies in a fountain. "Thanks for taking me to that bar."

   "Don't… don't mention it, Lou," Jenny said, slightly taken aback. "You'd have done the same for me, right?"

   Rogue smiled, a bashful look crossing her pretty features, and then she playfully traced her tongue along the side of Jenny's ice-cream-smeared cheek. "I'd like to think so, Jen. Don't think I could have pretended to be Jon Bon Jovi as well as you did, though."

   Jenny laughed. "I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not," she said with a wink, squeezing Rogue's knee with the hand that wasn't holding the remote control. "I mean, that could either mean I'm a great singer, or I look far too masculine for my own good."

   Coughing slightly, Rogue ran her fingers up the centre of Jenny's chest, walking them over the surface of her girlfriend's sternum and between her full breasts like a tiny pair of legs. "Well, honey, I wasn't gonna mention the manly rug you got growin' in right here, but since you brought it up…" She kissed Jenny's collarbone, feeling the slight fizzle of electricity run through her lips as her girlfriend began to protest jokingly. Her fingers brushed Jenny's naked hip beneath the sheet that was draped across their legs, and she cuddled closer to her girlfriend's body, kissing her lightly on the lips once more. "Don't mean I don't still think you're cute as a bug, though," she said, her tone as complimentary as she could make it. "Love you."

   "Love you too," Jenny replied, before a sceptical look crossed her face for a moment or two. "Hold on a second… I know that look – what do you want, Lou?"

   Rogue raised an eyebrow. "I'm shocked, Jen. Why can't I tell the woman I love just how I feel about her now and again?" She nuzzled Jenny's neck with the tip of her nose, and laughed softly as Jenny leant into it, like a cat being stroked. "I wanted to thank you for being there for me last night, too," she added softly. "Felt nice to have you there. I know that woman couldn't really have hurt me – never really needed much protection from anything for years now, not since I stole Carol Danvers' powers – but you made me feel a lot more secure. That means a lot." She slipped her hand into Jenny's palm, and squeezed gently, feeling a sensation almost like a comfort blanket settling around her shoulders when she felt Jenny squeeze back.

   "Ah, you don't have to thank me for that, honey – I'd have kicked that girl's ass whoever she was hitting on. Some people just deserve to have their egos bruised because their attitude stinks," Jenny said softly, her voice tickling Rogue's ear. "But I thought I'd make it an extra-special ass-kicking because it was you. Whatever it takes to get you to wear that Victoria's Secret stuff I bought you, after all…"

   Rogue laughed, and swatted playfully at Jenny's arms with her hands. "Dream on, Rawhide – the day I dress up like a catalogue model is the day the world ends."

   Jenny did her best to look utterly crushed, doing her best impression of Droopy in order to make Rogue feel guilty. "I feel so betrayed," she wailed in a plaintive tone. "I'd have thought that what I did deserves at least a showing of those cute Daisy Dukes you like to wear, after all."

   "Ease up there, Rawhide," Rogue exclaimed, shaking her head at Jenny's lascivious expression. "We ain't in Hazzard County yet. 'Nother couple hundred miles and a couple dozen dropped IQ points oughtta get us there, though." She hopped out of bed and posed with her hands on her hips, the nascent moonlight coming in through the gap in the curtains and casting angular slices of its soft light on Rogue's T-shirt-clad body. "And besides, sugar, if I do that now, what else can I do to keep you?"

   "Oh, well, I heard your boysenberry pie was something to die for. Is there any truth to that, or was I just hearing so much scuttlebutt?" Jenny asked in an overtly-innocent fashion, but also in such a way that was calculated to get a response. Sure enough, Rogue's face twisted into an irritated frown as a particular memory swam to the surface of her mind, through all the other borrowed memories that were still floating around her skull like lost and aimless shoals of fish. She ran her hands through her hair as she got back into bed, and then pursed her lips before she spoke, trying to find the right words to use without sounding as annoyed as she was.

   "I… guess you could say that," she said slowly, trying to stop her veins throbbing at the recollection of the event. "I've only done it once, though – and when I did, nobody got to eat any of it; Remy charged it up and threw it at Bishop." Jenny turned her lips inwards for a second or two, to try and stop the laugh that Rogue could clearly see building in her throat, before she composed herself enough to reply.

   "He… threw it at Bishop?" she asked, almost incredulous.

   "Yes, Jen, he charged up my boysenberry pie and threw it at Bishop," Rogue said in a clipped tone, folding her arms and pushing her lower lip out a little. "I worked for _hours on that damn pie, and it ended up getting splattered all over my face."_

   Jenny clapped both hands over her mouth and nose, shaking silently with laughter, her eyes twinkling in the room's half-light. "Oh, Lou, I'm sorry," she gasped. "I was just imagining you covered in pie crust … I couldn't stop myself."

   "Neither could Remy," Rogue replied, trying to look as dignified as she possibly could in the midst of her recollection of the embarrassing events. "I swear I'd have pounded him flat – that is, if his wife hadn't showed up just before I punched his face in."

   Jenny stopped laughing, and extended a confused forefinger towards Rogue, her expression clouding over with puzzlement. "Remy's… wife?"

   "Yes, he didn't think to tell his potential new girlfriend that he still had a wife back in New Orleans," Rogue said bitterly. When Jenny looked even more confused, she continued "Welcome to the X-Men's world, honey. We get estranged wives, evil twins, alien clones, parallel-reality mirror images and God knows _what else showin' up on our doorstep every other week. Hell, Joseph is supposed to be Magneto, and he's less than half the guy's age – even the Professor has no clue what happened to him. So you can see what kind of a mess you've gotten yourself into by getting involved with me – you better expect our cyborg kids from the future to start turnin' up sometime soon, carryin' guns big enough to shoot a T-Rex with."_

   "Are you serious?" Jenny asked, scratching the back of her scalp with her free hand. "That actually happened?"

   Rogue nodded. "'Fraid so, sugar. Happened more'n once, actually." She sighed, stroking Jenny's cheek absently, little blue arcs of electricity connecting with her fingers and popping quietly as the contact was broken. "You get used to it after a while, though – I bet Scotty's got a big ol' chart of the birthdays he has to remember taped to his bedroom wall." She counted off a few fingers, mouthing names to herself, before she spoke again. "Let's see… he's got Nathan – that's his son with Maddie Pryor – then he's got Nathan's kid sister Rachel, and Nathan's alternate-reality twin brother, Nate Grey. Plus there's Stryfe, Nathan's clone, Corsair, Scott's space-pirate dad, and Alex, Scott's brother. Not to mention his grandparents up in Anchorage –"

   "I think I get the idea," Jenny said, a little bemusedly. "And you say you people get used to this kind of thing?"

   Rogue giggled. "Oh, sure you do. After you visit your first alternate reality, or meet your evil twin, everything else looks kinda boring. Why, I haven't been grocery shopping in years without expecting a doorway to the Mojoverse to open right in front of the Captain Crunch boxes."

   "The… which?" Jenny asked, confused.

   "Magical dimension run by a big fat spineless yellow dude with magic powers," Rogue said in a single, unbroken breath. "Used to be all creepy fantasy-land stuff, but then he decided TV was a better way of getting people to behave themselves." She shrugged. "He used the X-Men as a way to get higher ratings – he gave Betsy some bionic eyes and filmed us through them."

   Jenny shuddered. "Sounds like a creep to me."

   "Yeah, that's pretty much what we figured out, too," Rogue agreed, her hackles raised by the simple memory. "Gives me the creeps just thinkin' of that fat tub of blubber filming Betsy twenty-four hours a day." She shrugged. "Guess there are some things even X-Men don't get used to, after all."

   Jenny's expression of distaste turned into a relieved smile. "Glad to hear it, Lou," she told Rogue with a small burst of laughter, which erupted from her throat like champagne bubbles bursting. "Otherwise I don't think I could have kept your interest much longer."

   Rogue shook her head and trailed her hands through Jenny's hair, tangling her fingers in the long brown strands absently. "I don't think there's much chance of that happening, sugar," she said, her eyes half-closing themselves lazily before she laid her head next to Jenny's. "I haven't watched all your Disney movies yet, after all." She paused. "Better hide 'em – I'm up to _Aladdin so far. Once I've watched 'em all, I'm gone."_

   "Is that a threat, Lou?" Jenny asked. "If it is, remind me to hold all your Pogs to ransom when we get home." She smiled, and lay back into the soft cushion of pillows that she had constructed for herself. "That way you'll _have to stay."_

   Rogue pouted. "That's low, Rawhide," she said. "There are some things you just don't touch – and a girl's Pog collection is one of 'em."

   "Well I suppose I shall have to find something else to steal, then, won't I?" Jenny said thoughtfully. Then, she pointed at the TV with the remote control. "I guess I can think of something later. Right now, I want to see some kick-ass fight scenes – that okay with you?"

   Shrugging, Rogue turned her attention to the TV screen, which was still showing Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss frozen in mid-pose. "Sure. I don't have a problem with that," she murmured, snuggling down underneath the sheets and wrapping her left arm across Jenny's stomach. "Bring it on."

*

   When the movie had finished, Rogue yawned and stretched. "Well, that's the movie done, Jen," she said in a tired voice. "Should we talk about where we want to go next?"

   Jenny shook her head. "Not until the morning. Besides," and she stretched a little also, "I've always thought that road trips should be when you just… drive… and see where you end up." A thoughtful expression passed over her face. "I've always wanted to drive through Arizona, though – just to see if there really are skeletons by the roadside, like in the movies. Just something to bear in mind for the future, I guess."

   "Yeah," Rogue murmured tiredly. "Maybe we could go to Chicago, too – maybe do an entire circuit of the country. We could see how long it took us to do all forty-eight connected states, couldn't we?"

   Jenny laughed. "We'd be out here for weeks, Lou. Don't you think your friends would start to miss you?"

   "I guess they might, but they're used to people movin' from place to place all the time," Rogue said in a matter-of-fact way, even through her deepening exhaustion. "It's like a halfway house in that mansion. There are so many people comin' and goin' that I don't think I'm any different. Hell, they probably think I deserve a vacation once in a while. It won't…" and she yawned again, more deeply this time, "won't be a problem."

   Jenny raised her eyebrows. "If you say so, Lou." She laughed suddenly, as something struck her. "Hey, I guess we've started talking about where we wanted to go after all." She kissed Rogue lightly on the forehead, drawing a weary sigh of contentment from the other woman. "Sneak."

   "That's me," Rogue mumbled sleepily. "Maybe we should wait until the morning after all… can barely keep my eyes open." She closed her eyes slowly, and then started to slumber gently against Jenny's shoulder.

   "Goodnight, Lou," Jenny whispered, brushing her lips gently across Rogue's. "Sleep tight."


End file.
